Must Be Dreaming
by writeaway23
Summary: Leo must relive his past until he reaches the present. But is it all a dream?
1. Introduction

**Intro**

Leo couldn't think. He'd been up all night. What had gotten into him? He wondered. Not right, He thought, not right at all.

Leo carefully flipped on a couple of switches and pressed a button that lifted up his bed. A metal doorway opened like a camera lens revealing a darkened cabin. Careful not to wake his fellow bunkmates, Leo crawled out of bed and snuck toward the door. He had kept his day clothes on, not being able to find rest. Even his shoes remained on his feet, which now felt like pins and needles because they had fallen asleep. Leo looked down at these sneakered feet. I wish I could konk out as fast as they could, he thought.

Leo had barely made it out the door when he slipped on a loose washer. He stumbled, tripping over his feet, but bounced up just as quick. He pressed his ear hard against the cold metal door of the cabin. Nothing. Wow, his cabin mates were heavy sleepers.

Then Leo ran, as fast as his feet would carry him. He didn't know where he was going. He was running away from his thoughts. At least his little sneaking out excursion could distract him. But it was only a matter of time before his thoughts came rushing back to him, flooding his brain. When he tried to think of something else, his ADHD senses flipped him back to focus on the problem. And it was a big one. Leo loved Jason.

No, not like a brotherly love. He had already tried and failed at convincing himself of that. He... fancied? Was that the right word? He was being ridiculous.

Leo found himself in front of the Bunker 9 entrance, not knowing how he had even ended up there. He was out of breath, but made it through the door just before he crumpled to the floor.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

Leo dragged himself into a cobwebby corner of the workshop and brought his knees to his chest. He was a prisoner to his mind. Millions of questions streamed into his head. Why? Why did he like Jason? Let alone boys. When had that happened? He liked that ice princess just fine on their trip. Was he... He shivered and it had nothing to do with being cold. Was he... Leo clamped his eyes shut as if that would block out his thoughts. Was he gay? There he said it. Or... at least allowed himself to think of the possibility. He had never felt attracted to any other guy, had he? No. No, definitely not. It was Jason. Just Jason.

Leo stared at a leak from a crack in the ceiling, alit by a flickering bluish light coming from a piece of abandoned machine work that had been cast aside in a corner on the opposite side of the cave. A single drop of water dripped down and hit the damp floor at a constant rhythm. Leo surrendered to his thoughts.

Of course, all that was on his mind was Jason. And his golden hair and careless way of carrying himself and those intense blue eyes that always seemed to be a million miles away and the way he always looked when he was unguarded: so intense and focused on his thoughts.

Stop it, he told himself. He's Piper's. And why can't you just date some other girl? There are plenty out there. But this only made him feel sick. He propped his head against the concrete wall and closed his eyes, drifting into the dreams of someone he knew that he could never have...

Jason turned over on his cot. He couldn't sleep in this frozen cavern of a cabin, not that the cold, vacant place was what was bothering Jason at the moment. It was Leo. He had been acting different lately. At least not like himself. He seemed somewhat distant around Jason. The usual joke was replaced with an odd sort of formality that Jason wasn't used to from Leo. Jason stared at the celling, his thoughts shifting now to Piper. Things were still murky waters with them right now. They were friends but not as close as Piper probably wanted them to be. Jason sometimes caught her sideways glances at him as if she was expecting something more. Jason wasn't sure that he wanted that sort of relationship with her anymore now that he knew what he was, or rather where he had come from.

There were more important things to think about, but Jason's mind always drifted back to being concerned about his two friends. Was he putting them in danger being from the Roman camp? Would Camp Half-Blood be in danger from his arrival too? What if he had had a girlfriend back at his camp? What would Piper think then? The thought repulsed him.

It was breakfast at the dining hall and Leo's plate was piled with pancakes. His cabin mates looked at him weird when he dumped a bowl of cinnamon sugar over the top. Just the way he liked it. At least food could always take his mind of things, if only temporarily.

Last night Leo had fallen asleep on the concrete floor of the workshop with his hands clasped to his chest. Now his neck felt all kinky. It was lucky that he'd woken up in time to get to breakfast, but he'd hardly gotten any sleep. He didn't even know what he looked like. He ran his fingers through his hair. Even with his curls, it stuck out in weird places. His eyes could hardly stay open.

It was not only Leo that looked like sleep took vacation for the night. Jason entered the dining hall looking like someone had taken out his spinal chord. His eyelids drooped halfway over his eyes and his mouth hung open as if he was half yawning and half trying to keep his mouth shut. He trudged over to his table and sat down with a thump, not bothering to pick up his fork. Leo watched as Jason set his head down on the table and start to drool. It was extremely pathetic and utterly adorable.

Had Jason been up all night too? Leo secretly wished that Jason was up all night thinking of him too. Realizing that he was staring, he tore his eyes from the sleeping Jason, and put his head in his hands. It was going to be a long day.

As the sun leaked through the windows of his cabin, Jason had just begun to close his eyes. His cot was completely torn apart. He hadn't got any sleep and now the birds wouldn't give their songs a rest. It was hopeless. Jason wrenched open his eyes. He rolled out of bed and hopped across the cold marble floor and over to the showers. Maybe the hot water would wake him up.

It didn't. If anything, Jason walked into the dining pavilion looking just as tired minus the bed head. He plunked down at his table. Was it possible to be to tired to eat? Right now, he felt like it was possible. Jason propped up his head up in his hands. His eyelids slid shut. Why is it always that when you want to sleep, you can't, and when you want to stay awake, you can't keep your eyes open.

All was fine in dreamland until cries of: "WATERBALLON FIIIGHT" ripped apart Jason's eardrums. He was jolted awake, just barely dodging a balloon that must have been thrown at his previously sleeping face.

He cleared the fog out of his eyes, and what he saw was... well, chaos. The Apollo cabin (at least that was what Jason guessed given the Stoll brothers were fully armed and guarding their giant vat of water balloons behind them) had started a full out battle. Every man for himself. Half the guys were running around with their shirts off throwing endless piles of balloons at each other while the Aphrodite girls were running around the pavilion screaming and waving their hands around hopelessly. The Ares cabin started running back to their cabin (probably to get more serious weapons) and off to the left the Hephaestus cabin was busy constructing a catapult to effectively launch balloons at precise targets, which in this case happened to be Jason.

He looked up just in time to see a giant blue balloon come flying through the air. Jason didn't try to stop it. If anything could wake him up, it was adrenaline and a smack in the face from a giant blue water balloon. But Jason wasn't about to tell anyone that…

"You're going to pay for that, Valdez!" Jason shouted over at the Hephaestus crew. He could see Leo's smirk. He had hit his mark.

Jason stood up and stripped of his shoes and his now completely soaked through shirt. He ran for it. All the way up the hill to the giant vat of balloons, dodging the Stoll brothers' throws. He collected as many balloons as he could carry and sprinted over to Leo. The curly haired kid was still completely dry and laughing his head off. That was about to change.

Leo was still cracking up when he got there. "That was better than Coach Hedge!" He yelped. He stopped cold when he saw Jason. His chocolate brown eyes went wide.

Leo froze mid-laugh. Jason was an arms length away. Shirtless. It felt like everything went in slow motion after that. It was as if it were only him and Jason, the world circling around him (when had his life become so cliché?). The last thing he saw was a flash of red and the feel of ice water splashing down his back. Then everything went black.

His eyelashes fluttered open. Jason was there, by his bed. Hospital bed. Hospital bed?

The lighting was dim and smells of sterile sheets and bleach flooded his senses. A small and constant beep pulsed in his ears from a machine above his head.

"You'll be alright, Leo. I know this feels weird now but I'll explain when you're better, alright?" Jason sounded so sure of himself. He pulled up the crisp, white sheets of the hospital bed up to Leo's chin. Leo stared up at the blank tiles on the ceiling.

"Wh-where...am I?" Leo's voice was thin and crackly. Jason reached his hand out and brushed a stray curl out of Leo's eyes. He could feel that the boy's hands were shaking against his face. Despite his confident aura, Jason seemed nervous. Leo tried to speak again,

"Why...are you so..." Leo could feel reality slipping away again. His vision shuttered. Back to black.

"Leo... Leeeeoooo. Are you awake?"

"Guys, I think he's dead."

"Jason you killed him!"

"I didn't think I could throw that hard!"

Hollow voices swirled inside Leo's head.

"What happened?" Leo's voice sounded distant from himself, a distant beep drummed in his head. It was sunny out again, grass prickled underneath him. His vision cleared up to see Jason's head hovering over him. Why was this familiar? Maybe this was a dream. Leo wanted to test it.

He didn't waste any time in reaching up and grabbing hold of Jason's neck. Leo smiled like a mad man as he pulled the other boy down. Their eyes were a wink apart.

"Leo. What are you doing?" Jason whispered. Leo stared back up at him. He blinked. His face was hot. Maybe he only wanted it to be a dream...

"N-nothing," he stammered. Jason pried off the hand that was still at his neck. "I thought I was dreaming."

"O-kaay." Jason did a nervous sort of laugh; they were getting weird looks from some of the other campers. He pulled Leo up. "I don't think it was just a water balloon that knocked you out. Let's go talk to Chiron. Are you okay to walk?" Jason asked. Leo's head was still spinning. He gave somewhat of a noncommittal grunt; Jason had started walking anyway.


End file.
